Teleglitch: Die More Edition Review

I’m coming up on what I really hope is the end of level 5 in Teleglitch: Die More Edition, and I have my favorite guns modded just the way I like them and plenty of ammo. I have bombs, medkits and armor. I even crafted myself a detector that shows me the locations of enemies nearby, a major luxury item I had to clear out the entire Materials Packing Complex to get. I’m finally getting off this miserable planet, I think confidently. That is a huge mistake. It’s exactly when I feel this incredible sense of accomplishment that makes me love Teleglitch that it decides to punish me too harshly.

I enter a room and the doors slide shut behind me. I didn’t even know that could happen. Two huge mutant monstrosities I’ve never encountered before mow me down in a hail of gunfire, overkill considering it only takes two or three bullets to kill me. I’ve lost an hour of progress, maybe years of my life due to high blood pressure, all in a blink of an eye. The Game Over message, where Teleglitch usually makes fun of me dying in some backhanded way suggests, “Perhaps you should take a break?” Which is really the ultimate insult. I audibly tell the game to go to hell, rage quit and promise myself I’ll never play it again.

But a couple of hours later I’m back in. This time I’ll make sure I have a couple of rocket launchers and stimulants that makes me run faster. Maybe that will work, but who knows when I’ll reach level 5 again? And how am I going to get there if I’m crafting rocket launchers instead of the weapon mods I so desperately need?

These are the kind of questions and frustrations that Teleglitch throws at you constantly. It’s relentless, cruel but addictive, like a plate of way-too-spicy chicken wings. I know I shouldn’t have more, but I do, despite the pain.

Though it looks and controls like a top-down shooter, Teleglitch is first and foremost a surprisingly effective survival-horror game. It made me feel more dread than the recent, blockbuster-scale Deadspace and Resident Evil action-horror games because of its full commitment to a few key gameplay tropes: scarcity of resources, enemies that always have the advantage, and crucial choices that leave very little room for error. What ammo do you want to waste? What do you want craft? Which corner do you look around first? Make the wrong choice even once and you’re probably starting over.

Unfortunately, there were times when my demise felt like it had nothing to do with the choices I made. There was no way for me to know that I was about to get locked in a room with two huge enemies with machine guns. That alone is not a grave offense, but it also took me many hours to develop a workable strategy, most of which were spent playing through earlier sections of the game that became too familiar over time, and eventually just boring.

The pixel art style makes screenshots look funky, but it works in motion.

The layout of levels is randomly rearranged to prevent memorization, but at the same time they’re not randomized enough that each playthrough feels different enough to be an experience worthy of your time in its own right. You’re still going to have to go through the Outdoor Training Ground every single time, which has the same zombies lurking only in a different location and the same art.

Teleglitch does have four checkpoints throughout its 10 levels, but if you choose to start your game at one of these you’re given an assortment of arbitrarily selected, level-appropriate items. Those checkpoint items were always less useful than what I would probably have acquired if I started over at the beginning, which essentially makes the checkpoints useless.

Luckily, Teleglitch’s lo-fi aesthetics are cool and original enough that they pulled me back in time and time again. They’re not just retro for retro’s sake – like everything else in Teleglitch, they support and amplify the survival horror experience. The derelict military research facility, with crumbling walls and piles of trash in the halls, seems dirtier because it’s rendered with blocky pixels. The way color distorts around anomalies and in the wake of every projectile you fire makes shots feel powerful, like it’s almost tearing the game world apart.

The simplest and most clever visual trick that makes Teleglitch stressful is that you’re only able to see what’s in your character’s line of sight, meaning that enemies can get the jump on you from around a corner just as they would in a first-person shooter. Altogether these create a disorienting, claustrophobic atmosphere which compliments the rest of Teleglitch really well.

What lurks behind those columns?

Note that “Die More Edition” echoes Dark Souls’ PC Prepare to Die Edition, another game with roguelike elements known for its difficulty. Another thing they have in common is that in both games I could easily identify the moments where I stopped having fun: when I stopped trying to think of how to beat them and started to think of how to cheese them. It’s a simple but important difference: If I’m trying, learning and failing, I’m still having fun. If I’m so helplessly stuck I resort to exploiting design flaws by, say, tediously backing away from zombies while repeatedly attacking them with my knife in order to save ammo for later levels, I’m just powering through to get to the next enjoyable section.

Compounding this problem is that the punishment for failure is too severe in a game that lacks the randomization and variety to make exploration repeatedly appealing. Few would argue that Dark Souls is an easy game, but it allows you to accumulate items and retrieve souls when you die so you’re progressing even as you’re failing. In Teleglitch you accumulate bits and pieces of backstory you find on computer terminals and descriptions of enemies. While these are imaginative and occasionally interesting, they don’t improve your odds at all and hence not very satisfying to collect. Teleglitch offers no compromises.

Here comes brutal death.

I’m not usually a glutton for punishment, so it was too often more challenge than I cared for. However, I can’t deny that it was immensely satisfying to get past that dreaded death chamber on level 5, and many other seemingly impossible situations I eventually overcame. As a completionist, it was annoying and a little humbling to admit that I’ll never see Teleglitch to its end, but I got over it. Once I did I really appreciated Teleglitch for what it is: a new and unique take on survival horror worth experiencing.

THE VERDICT

At its best, Teleglitch hurts good. Sometimes it just hurts. When it was difficult in service of a horror mood it was trying to create I had a really good time with it. When it was difficult for difficulty’s sake I felt like Teleglitch was urging me to give up, which I eventually did. It may end in frustration, but its worth playing just to see how it masterfully hits all the survival horror notes with its distinct presentation and vicious design.

The Verdict

Despite coming from a small team, Curse of Mermos is a fun
and somewhat addictive game to play on your PC or Mac, and the best part is
that it’s totally free. No in-game transactions, no ads – just plenty of
button-mashing fun to be had. It certainly shows more promise than a mere
student project, so do yourself a favor and download the game for free here or check it out on Steam
Greenlight.